Characterization of Street Drugs Using Handheld Fourier Transform Raman Spectroscopy

Handheld Raman spectroscopy offers a rapid and mobile technique for determining drugs nondestructively. The further advantage analyzing drug products (DPs) thanks to its ability measure samples through packaging, thus preserving evidence integrity continuity. This research evaluated the use of handheld Fourier transform (FT)-Raman characterization street DPs (n = 254) diverse formulations. spectra inside their packaging were collected matched against instrumental in-built library, then exported Matlab 2020a offline spectral interpretation. Reference analysis was confirmed using gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC–MS) infrared (IR) spectroscopy. main present 1,3-trifluoro- methylphenylpiperazine, cocaine, ketamine, 3,4-methylenedioxymethamfetamine, mephedrone, 1-benzylpiprerazine. impurities in benzocaine, caffeine, lactose. affected signature (enhanced or inhibited) DPs, enabling profiling visualizing patterns among different products. These latter featured similarities highlighted by correlation coefficient values between adjacent clusters envisaged principal component scores plot.